September 9, 2026#1186archive

NYT Connections — September 9, 2026

Hints — one at a time

Hint 1 of 5

Today's board moves from words meaning confusing or baffling, to compound words built with prefixes meaning "small," to horror movie titles, and finally to words that pair with "force."

Hint 2 of 5

Yellow (easiest): each of these describes something puzzling or difficult to make sense of.

Hint 3 of 5

Green: each of these word starts with a prefix that means tiny or small-scale.

Hint 4 of 5

Blue: each of these is the title of a well-known horror film.

Hint 5 of 5

Purple (hardest): each of these word or letter combines with "force" to make a familiar term.

The answer — spoilers!

Reveal the full answer

yellow
Hard To Understand
BEWILDERING · ESOTERIC · INCOMPREHENSIBLE · OPAQUE
green
Words With "Small" Prefixes
MICROBREWERY · MINIVAN · NANOTECHNOLOGY · PICOSECOND
blue
Horror Movies
ARACHNOPHOBIA · HALLOWEEN · IT · SAW
purple
Words Before "Force"
BRUTE · ELECTROMAGNETIC · G · TASK

This puzzle by the numbers

Hardest group (purple): Words Before "Force"
Longest word on the board: INCOMPREHENSIBLE

Counted from our own archive of NYT Connections answers — not published anywhere else.

A solved Connections-style board: sixteen word tiles sorted into four coloured rows of four — fruits, gemstones, instruments and planets — A solved Connections grid: four groups of four, one colour each. Example board, not today’s puzzle.